The alliance said this should be done before Fulani invaders fill the largely ungoverned spaces available due to the alleged complicity of the Federal Government across the Alliance Territories.
The Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) has called on the governors of the Alliance Territories to emulate Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State and create their own security outfits.
The alliance said this should be done before Fulani invaders fill the largely ungoverned spaces available due to the alleged complicity of the Federal Government across the Alliance Territories.
It lamented that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria allows such anomalies in the country.
NINAS made the call in a statement titled "Nigerian Union Dispute: Marching Orders To Governors Regarding The Control Of Security And Economic Assets Confiscated By The Illicit Federal Government Of Nigeria Via The Fraudulent 1999 Constitution".
According to NINAS, Governor Ortom has set the pace; other governors of the Alliance Territories must now follow suit.
The group recalled that on March 17, 2021, at the expiration of the 90 days of Notice of Constitutional Force Majeure issued on December 16, 2020, to the Federal Government of Nigeria, NINAS urged the governors of the Alliance Territories to pass laws to assume control of their security, economic resources among others.
"NINAS at a World Press Conference in Ibadan, invited the Governors of the Alliance Territories (South and Middle-Belt) to commence preliminary processes of retrieving the Sovereignty of their various peoples, (pending the full resolution of the Union Dispute), by sending Bills to their respective State Houses of Assembly to pass laws by which they would assume control over their own Security, Economic Resources and other Governance Powers and Responsibilities hitherto Confiscated and Prohibited by the 68-item Federal Exclusive Legislative List on the 1999 Constitution.
"Field visitations by a NINAS Team to major stakeholders (including state governors) across the Alliance Territories were undertaken throughout 2021," it said.
It, however, stated that the first semblance of compliance with the strident demands of the peoples of the Alliance Territories was the Asaba Declaration by which the governors of Southern Nigeria committed themselves to ensure the passage of Anti-Open Grazing Laws in their various states, latest by September 2021. This decision was hailed by the Governor of Benue State, whose state had at the time already passed an Anti-Open Grazing Law.
The statement read in part, "The said laws were passed in the Southern States as scheduled.
"However, the Enforcement of those Anti-Open Grazing Laws which required the use of firearms and Ammunition came against a brick wall erected by the 1999 Constitution via the 68-item Federal Exclusive Legislative List under which the Federal Government of Nigeria had Exclusive Control over Arms and Ammunition.
"Armed with the spectacular success of the Constitutional Force Majeure Activation, NINAS intensified pressures on the Governors of the Alliance Territories to get on the side of their people by immediately stepping into the vacuum created by the defeat of the 1999 Constitution before the Fulani invaders step into the largely ungoverned spaces wrought by the complicity of the Federal Government across the Alliance Territories.
"Mandated by the people of Benue State, Governor Samuel Ortom has courageously taken the bull by the horns, not only by ensuring the Enactment of the requisite legislation but by the actual rollout of an Armed Security Service for Benue State.
"As we anxiously await similar actions from the state governments in the Alliance Territories, NINAS congratulates the government and people of Benue State and pledges all available support to this all-important self-preservation Initiative."